Send us Fan Mail

Your dashboard is not the action. Here is how to turn customer feedback into real change.

Yanique Grant sits down with Ryan Tamminga, Chief Customer Officer at Alchemer, a CX feedback platform used across almost every industry worldwide.

Drawing on a career at Deloitte, Accenture and Reed Group, Ryan explains why feedback must reach a human when automation fails, how digging beyond dashboards revealed 15 customer segments where one company expected seven, and why curiosity, not ego, is what moves CX forward in the age of AI.

In this episode:

• Deciding what to automate and when to escalate to a live human
• Moving past dashboards and sentiment scores to feedback that triggers action
• One simple step to close the loop with customers this week
• What to do when leadership disagrees with what customers are saying
• How AI agents will change the way customers engage with brands
• Why AI evolves, rather than replaces, the human role in CX

Featured resources:

Book: The works of John Steinbeck (Ryan is reading his entire anthology to sharpen his storytelling and narration)
Alchemer (Ryan uses his own platform daily to stay close to customers)
Claude with MCP connections into Salesforce and Gong
Iris, Alchemer's new AI native CX platform

Connect with the guest:
LinkedIn: Ryan Tamminga
Website: alchemer.com (use the Contact Us page and it will find its way to Ryan)
Alchemer customers: mention you heard Ryan on this podcast in any Alchemer survey and it will reach him

Follow the show: X @NavigatingCX and join our private Facebook group, Navigating the Customer Experience Community.

Hosted by Yanique Grant.

Send us Fan Mail

Is human support about to become a luxury only premium customers can afford?

Yanique Grant sits down with Ben Rosenberg, VP of Customer Experience Delivery at ChurnZero, a SaaS leader with two decades of customer experience behind him at companies like Zenefits and Sendoso. Ben gives an honest answer on whether automation is creating a two tier CX model, explains why AI still struggles with complex B2B context, and shares the data that convinced his team course based customer education is dead or dying. Plus, how he uses AI as an Iron Man suit for his team, not a replacement.

In this episode:

• Why a two tier CX model already exists and how automation could widen it
• Human support as a strategic differentiator, not just a premium perk
• Where AI still falls short in complex B2B support
• Three months of data that changed ChurnZero's customer education strategy
• Designing training for the 90 percent of users who just want to get on with their day
• Ben's guiding quotes for pushing through pressure

Featured resources:

Book: How I Built This (NPR podcast hosted by Guy Raz): long form interviews with founders and CEOs, Ben's favorite listen for work
ChurnZero (customer success platform for post sale teams)
Claude and Claude Code (AI assistant Ben uses daily for organization and building team automations)
YouTube (where most people now go to learn)
Raspberry Pi (the kit Ben is using to learn home automation and hardware basics)
Heart Over Hardware: Mastering the Human Skills AI Can't Touch. Our CX Human and AI Lab, live on Zoom, Tuesday, October 13, 6:00 to 7:00 PM Eastern. Hands on and interactive, not a lecture. Seats are $30. Register at the link and bring your team.

Connect with the guest:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/benarosenberg (Ben is most active here and welcomes messages)
Company: churnzero.com

Ben is active in several CX networking groups and loves to talk shop on anything discussed in this episode.

Follow the show: X @NavigatingCX and join our private Facebook group, Navigating the Customer Experience Community. Hosted by Yanique Grant.

Send us Fan Mail

AI won't replace your people. It will replace the ones acting like robots.

Returning guest Jeff Toister, best-selling author of Human Service: The Skills AI Can't Replace, joins Yanique Grant to unpack where humans still win in a world racing to automate. Drawing on new research spanning more than 370,000 phone calls and 400-plus face-to-face interactions, Jeff makes the data-backed case for connection, understanding, and advocacy, the three human skills AI simply can't provide.

In this episode:

- Why connection is efficient: warm rapport makes calls 16% shorter
- Understanding and advocacy, the skills that beat automation on complex issues
- The greeting research: 12% better first-contact resolution and warmer customers
- Why AI replaces the transactional employee, not the true expert
- How to simplify your service strategy heading into 2027

Featured resources:

Book: Human Service: The Skills AI Can't Replace by Jeff Toister
Book: The Service Culture Handbook by Jeff Toister
Zoom (video conferencing Jeff uses daily, while noting no single tool is truly indispensable)

LinkedIn Learning (home to Jeff's training courses, taken by 5 million-plus learners)
Customer Service Tip of the Week (Jeff's free weekly email with content to share with your team)

Connect with the guest:

Human Service book (download the first chapter free): humanservicebook.com
Customer Service Tip of the Week (free weekly research and tips): toistersolutions.com/tips
Reply directly to any weekly email and it goes straight to Jeff

Follow the show: X @NavigatingCX and join our private Facebook group, Navigating the Customer Experience Community. Hosted by Yanique Grant.